Integrating Microgel-Low Salinity Waterflooding to Improve Production Profile in Non-Crossflow Heterogeneous Reservoir

Abstract

The oil recovery from fractured reservoirs is usually low and the early water breakthrough is one result of the fractured reservoir. Two enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods, low salinity water flooding (LSWF) and micro-gel, have recently drawn great interest from the oil industry. We integrated both methods into one process. The objective of this study was to test how the combining method could reduce production rates from the fractured layer and improve the production rate from the non-fractured layer through laboratory experiments. The parallel non-crossflow models, which were made of sandstone cores and two core holders, were built. The gel strength, water salinity, gel particle size, and sandstone permeability effects on oil recovery, production rate, and gel penetrations were studied. Sodium chloride (NaCl) was used for brine flooding and preparing swollen PPG. Two brine concentrations (1.0, and 0.01 wt. % NaCl) were used for the experiments. A light mineral oil was used. A flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. was used to inject the brine into the parallel non-crossflow models before and after the gel was placed into the fracture. The gel was injected into Outlet 1 to fill out the fracture at a flow rate of 2.0 ml/min until the gel injection pressure reached 500 psi. The optimum water salinity for the application of the coupled method was determined through laboratory experiments to be 0.01 wt. % NaCl because this gave the highest gel penetration into the partially fractured layer. However, the best water shut-off was obtained when the water salinity was 1.0 wt. % NaCl. The incremental oil recovery was almost the same in both 1.0 and 0.01 wt. % NaCl water salinity. When the gel particle size decreased, the water shut-off from the partially- closed fracture layer and the incremental oil recovery from the matrix were increased. This application had no significant effect when the core permeability was low because there was not much of an effect on the production rate ratio after gel treatment. From the laboratory experiments, we concluded that the PPG application might be more successful it is swelled in a low brine concentration.

Meeting Name

SPE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Annual Technical Symposium and Exhibition 2018, SATS 2018 (2018: Apr. 23-26, Dammam, Saudi Arabia)

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Enhanced recovery; Floods; Fracture; Particle size; Petroleum reservoir engineering; Petroleum reservoirs; Sandstone; Sodium chloride; Well stimulation, Brine concentration; Enhanced oil recovery; Fractured reservoir; Heterogeneous reservoirs; Injection pressures; Laboratory experiments; Permeability effects; Sodium chloride (NaCl), Oil well flooding

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-161399620-1

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2018 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Apr 2018

This document is currently not available here.

Share

 
COinS